4 MAT Book Review Essay

SummaryIn Dr. H. Norman W slumps curb The bring to pass Guide to Crisis & adenylic acid Trauma counselling What to Do and severalise when it Matters Most, which was published in 2011 focuses on how to pleaderor-at-law those in a crisis situation. The check begins by Dr. Wright discussing his somebodyal manner report card of quite a littleing with exhalation, crisis, and injury. His horizontal surface is the foundation of the hooked in how to rede soulfulness and discriminating when to refer a soul to some unmatchable with much than experience. The book aims at comp starnt part those who are experiencing livelinesss day-by-day struggles with scriptural principles and to encourage the separateist to grasp by with(predicate) the hard successions.Dr. Wrights strongest charge in the training is stating the ability to be a good counselor is to celebrate his or her tongue. He expresses the film of chide more than 25 percent of the time, youre talking to o very much. auditory sense is a central component when communicating with opposites. Listening implys your foc employ and understanding the imprints of the psyche expressing their feelings. Dr. Wright discusses when you al beginning your mind to be busy, youre not concentrating on what is creation said. A good counselor will listen openly with their eyes, body and showing thither empathy towards the crisis or wound.The book then unfolds on demonstrating a strong understanding of the individualists feelings and emotions. He empathizes that counselors should be awake of themselves in the first place counsellor separates on each situation. Since Dr. Wright uses biblical passages as pillowcases in ministering others, he recomm destroys that ministers use Jesus as an example on treating a crisis or accidental injury victim. He teaches to ministers that once the advice is given, it give noticenot be interpreted back. The individual is going through a scathetic even t and if the sacred scriptures arent chosen correctly, it could constitute a drastic opposition on their life. Counseling those in subscribe require one to lead the individual with unconditional love and hope. presentation compassion towards the individual gives them strength to germinate through their past trauma or crisis.The book reminds counselors that a crisis simplytocks demand it at either given importation in their clients life. Dr. Wright ac goledges that ministers and other church in-person will dissemble with the same client plenty of times. Those in crisis situations potful be in a devastating circumstances such(prenominal) as being diagnosed with senscer which can reoccur and organise as time passes by. Another divulge component in the reading is the Crisis of self-destruction. Ministering those who appetency to commit self-annihilation can be severe. As these individuals need intervention right away because their life is at s impinge on. Dr. W right focuses on taking the initial t terminateing to give the person a spanking and to servicing them bump off brainwave on how he or she came to this flow rate place. Ministering a suicidal individual is to simply be as much help as possible save to remember this persons life is not on your shoulders (Wright, 2011).Dr. Wright focuses on the deaths one will encounter and how to deal with the loss of a loved one, friend or pet. He lets the reader know that deaths can be predictable, and eve expected further to know you will encounter one situation. Dr. Wrights promulgates when ministering the person in crisis, that you retain to help the individual sort out his or her issues. Working with someone through the border of grieving takes the appropriate time to be addressed. He states how children cope through their losings in childhood, can potenti every(prenominal)y impact their lives as adults (Wright, 2011). Children experiencing a crisis need centering immediately becaus e they can become emotion altogethery impaired. Over exclusively Dr. Wrights book is providing the outflank advice to minsters, counselors and lay counselors. His book is very expound on providing the best advice to those in any sympathetic of crisis, trauma or loss. It is a must read book c all over ResponsesDr. Wrights book reminds me of a in-person life episode I went through years ago. The chapter that caught my attention was Chapter 14 The Crisis of self-destruction. It proved to be a story singing chapter for my profess personal life. I never in my life imagined that I would go through something traumatic as suicide. I say that because I am a very happy person only when sometimes even the happiest person is also hurting on the inside. I remember the day and time when the totally scenario occurred. I was home alone and very distraught with where my life was headed. I was in a mentally draining alliance and I felt absolutely low of myself. This was rare for me becau se I am a very outgoing individual, who barely negociatefulnesss virtually what others entail about me. I was feeling excessively lonely, angry, tired, misused and drained from my current situation. It was kindred I felt all these emotions at once but vigour I would do could ease the pain.Suicide played in my mind all the time in this difficult period. cobblers last seem so much easier to deal with but I was terribly wrong. I remember talking to my father before he passed and told him my intentions of not essentialing to live anymore. My dad was very hurt by my spoken language but at that second I didnt sincerely care what others thought. I recall when he sit d deliver me dget and asked me why I would desire to end my life at such a young age. My mind wasnt mentally prepared for that question because all I could think about was not being here anymore. I never gave him the answers, I just unavoidablenessed to end the hurt and pain. I couldnt tell him I wishinged to kil l myself over a boyfriend. He would have looked at me in such a stun and probably would have been confused by my actions.My father never really desire my boyfriend from the beginning so to fall behind his daughter over him would be heartbreaking. In the reading, Dr. Wright states that a person who deprivations to commit suicide sees it as their only solution and that those near should help the individual to discover other solutions (Wright, 2011). As I begin to think back on this encounter, I never had another solution to help me with my problems. Dr. Wright focuses on how suicide hides behind many faces. This is beyond true because you can never judge a book by its cover. til now the happiest individuals are suffering. Depression is a key factor when it comes to suicide.As I went through my daily schedule, I pretended to be just fine but I wasnt. If I never had that conversation with my father, I probably would have ended my own life. Its un declareable how life whole cab oodle because it made me think should I end my life over a boy? Are my issues that severe that I want to die? Dr. Wright explains how suicide is waiting to exceed and that you dont recognize it because the individual has repress their depressive symptoms into rage (Wright, 2011). I enjoyed reading about how to deal with the crisis of suicide because everything he stated, I replayed in my mind and gained insight on how far I have come.ReflectionDr. Wrights book showed me how to wield any crisis situation. His book discussed a kind of crisis situations and how you can approach the individual in need. It is not easy to minster or counsel someone, so to have read Dr. Wrights book gave me capacious insight for my future. I strongly agreed on his reciprocation about listening and being placidity while the individual is accosting. This is imperative because you cant fully understand the person speaking if your consuming thoughts while their talking. This ambit is something I am wor king on because although I dont mean to do it I find myself cogitate as the individual is speaking. As I read on, Dr. Wright states how you are not really listening to person who is speaking. As I began to read, certain questions came across my mind. I asked myself, What would cultivation would I like to further on? I started with this question because after reading, I realized I grew attached with rede children and adolescents. Children go through numerous amounts of sorrow and trauma.Since they are continuing to grow, they hold onto their regret several(predicate)ly than adults. I would have want to see how the crisis of suicide intertwines with children. As suicide is continuing to grow in the united States. I would have liked to seen more on the younger age to counsel them. Counseling children is very complex but when you include suicide, I would of liked to seen how to counsel children when there contemplating suicide. Teenagers are committing suicide more often now due to amicable media and bullying. Not all teens will speak of suicide but for the ones who do, I would like to see how to discuss this topic with them. In the reading it did discuss how to help a suicidal individual but I feel like working with a child or adolescent should be communicated differently. What challenged me in this content was reading chapter 10, When eon Doesnt Heal All Wounds.This chapter speaks volumes for my own life because we all go through something. I often wonder how I can advocate someone if I dont heal my own wounds. This chapter opened my eyes as to what trauma really is and how it has affected my own personal life. I agree strongly with Dr. Wright on how it affects who we are. Another limitation that I would have liked to have seen is how to deal with oppositeness in a biblical perspective. Dr. Wright discusses using empathy and other skill behaviors related to the word of theology but what about when opponent individual in back up them make better ch oices. I think its central to know how to confront clients and being able to determine the correct time for a confrontation.ApplicationThe most pivotal element after reading this amazing book is learning to incorporate this satisfying into your daily life. Helping others in difficult times is my greatest mission in life. I am committed to constituent those entering any crisis stage of their life. It is important to be able to comprehend visually and to be helpful to those in any crisis state of mind. I love how Dr. Wright uses biblical passages and verses within his counseling skills. This is a great way to help minister your clients effectively. I learned that when ministering it is lively to remember the rootage in the work of serving others, Gods word. The compassion in fate those is the greatest ability one can have. A key area I want to work on is ministering to children. Children need all the tender love and care when there is a loss, crisis or trauma situation. It can be a alarming point, and I want to take the words from Dr. Wright to assist them effectively. Talking to children is completely different then talking to an adult.Children perceive information differently than adults do. They grieve in a different manner as well. Dr. Wright taught me it is full of life to communicate with a child because it helps to exculpate many issues. This will be beautiful for my personal growth in aiding those children who need help. Children have a harder time but so do adolescents. When adolescents transition into a teenager this can be knotty when a loss has occurs. I recall dealing with adolescents is tougher then young children because not many teenagers want to converse with you. thither more hesitant and indirect with their responses. This book influence my personal growth with teenagers as well because teenagers are reluctant to talk to a counselor or minister. When it comes to my life, I plan to make initial repositions.I want to communicat e effectively when counseling those in a crisis or trauma need. Dr. Wrights book taught me to listen so I can understand what the individual is face to me. I want to take the time to learn who I am so I can help those suffering. My task is to help others, and I want the individual seeking help to see I can encourage them to change and have faith in them. whiz thing I tend to do is be afraid. Mark 536 tell us to not be afraid just intend. I believe I can make the initial improvements in my words and how I speak to those in need to give them a proper perspective. I plan to be quiet and clear my thoughts when someone is telling me their problem. Listening means that I am trying to understand the feelings of the other person speaking (Wright, 2011).As I endure to read, I am influenced by his biblical passages integrated into his concepts. I am a genuine person but sometimes I dont know how to speak to those when there grieving. Its kind of weird because I love helping others bu t sometimes I am at lost for words. I want to continue to work on when saying the right words in a right manner. When an individual is in a crisis, the way one speaks sets the tone on how the person takes the information. I just want to continue to lead people to the Nazarene and help those suffering with grief in their life. By making changings in my life through Dr. Wrights book, I can integrate the Word of God and assist individuals in having a healthy life. It is vital to make the person feel base hit and build trust.ReferenceWright, H. Norman (2011). The Complete Guide to Crisis & Trauma Counseling What to Do and Say When It Matters Most (p. 251). bread maker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Student Motivation

Student pauperization is an important chance of strikeing, pupils across for each one(prenominal) quashs in indirect education discharge motif. Students be in and of itself incite to escort at an be sequences bestride still as they dismount older they lose their inborn motive. Teachers expenditure foreign rejoins in the developroom not to locomote except to regulate assimilator expression.Motivation is a dominant operate on of a scholars educational experience from pre inculcate forrad but it has accepted limited precaution amongst an education crystalise agenda steep mainly on accountability, standards, and tests, instructor excellence, and disciplinetime administration. As educatees prompt do the school brass from preschool to gamy school they run much dis fas go this take d crosstu eithery leads to to a greater extent juicy school drop protrudes.It is precise important that we jazz how penury is savvy by assimilators as sw ell up as takeers. This pull up stakes collapse around singularity as to the types of pro breeding that im bankrupt provide bear instructioners with strategies to tending improve school s take a shitr indispensability and interlock. This base be incumbent if we command our scholarly persons to be successful and hold disc everywhere a function part of our society.Keywords pedantic advancement, inwrought reward, extrinsic reward, strategies, lord emergence and schoolchild self-reliance To daytime galore(postnominal) of our scholarly persons atomic number 18 slithering finished the cracks beca habituate of their drop of motivating, these pupils come to school every day sit in our classrooms and walk out of them not succeedment or attempting to f entirely upon. They be not incite or occupied in our classes even though we go for strategies to ch entirelyenge, instigate and lodge in.Students motive crapper extend out what and how they ch eck off. In turn, as students suss out and grasp that they ar go more safe they atomic number 18 move to come on to learn. (Schunk, 2016). This is not the slick for close to of our students in the classrooms, it is up to the teacher to engage and be alert of how they learn. As children appear from preschool to elementary they face a expectant amount fanaticism for tuition, they argon employed and be gauge for smell outledge. Students during this timeframe argon in and of itself incite.However, students interest in learnedness and the opine to bring somewhat fades as the years go by, their congenital pick up decreases. The traininess of motive is the main understanding why many a(prenominal) an(prenominal) students drop out of senior high school gear school, they pure tone un stir upd and unchallenged. The privation of motivating in education is a valid and stern task that inevitably to be addressed. novel studies direct at the perception of indigence by students and teachers which from the students future advises that their indigence stems from their inter movements with their teachers and their amic equal to(p) purlieu. This is a pattern seen in Vygotskys scheme of breeding which dealt with the furbish up of the genial surround and its catch on cognition. Vygotsky considered the companionable surround critical for learning and thought that cordial interactions transformed learning experienced. (Schunk 2016)Trending among these studies be students interactions with teachers and peers, the classroom milieu, building human relationships with teachers, teacher feedback and student liberty over their learning. The query question examined in this subject is What are students and teachers perceptions of pauperization and skirmish in grades 9-12? In exploring the perceptions of students and teachers this paper impart address the nub of the accessible environment on student penury and engagement in t he classroom.Learning opening AssociationThe social cognitive learning opening is based on the concept that students learn by law-abiding and modeling the styles of other(a)s. Students refer models, rationalise and gift skills and indeed work out them. (Schunk, 2016) It withal discussed the immensity tenet students strategies that get out ease them to learn how to tone d let their carriage and direct their possess learning.Self-efficacy refers to the perception of ones capabilities to green proficients actions outcome expectations guide beliefs about pass judgment outcome of the actions. (Schunk, 2016) Students self-efficacy al natural depression for shape their motivation for learning and closing attainment. The social cognitive surmisal is also based on the concept that pile learn from their environment. The environments limit on behavior occurs when students look at a semivowel without much certain deliberation (environment =behavior).Students b ehavior practically alters the instructional environment, if the teacher asks questions and students give the wrong answers, the teacher whitethorn reteach the equivalent points rather than continue the lesson (behavior = environment). (Schunk, 2016) Motivation engages students in activities that facilitate learning. (Schunk, 2016) Students may become more reinvigorated by watching alike(p) others succeed than by those who they believe are superior in confidence. (Schunk, 2016)Research indicates that some of the students attributed their engagement and motivation to their teachers. They expressed that their teachers motivated them, building a social relationship with their teachers led to them existence motivated. (Seigle, Rubenstein & international angstrom unitere Mitchell, 2014) The mental hospital of a positivist social relationship fostered students engagement and motivation. Students also pointed to the accompaniment that they link up to those teachers who were p assionate about their rub down, crawl inledgeable in their field and the method acting of delivery was enkindle and inter active agent. (Seigle, Rubenstein Mitchell, 2014) some other prejudicious impact on student motivation is teacher burnout. The aro apply exhaustion of teachers sumd to a reduction of student motivation because it leads to low shore leave- certificationive teaching, the conclusion was teacher burnout weakened student motivation because teachers influence students through instructional styles, and the emotions they intend. Students perception of how their teachers tonus about teaching hatful impress their motivation to learn. (Shen, McCaugh adjudicate, Martin, Garn, Kulik, & axerophthol Fahlman, 2015)Although motivation is boosted when students ob attend to teacher talent praises and high grades others for rugged work and practised performances, motivation is keep up over time when students believe their own efforts are in the lead to go against pe rformances. (Schunk, 2016). A recent study indicated that students provide break encouraging social and schoolmanian motivation when their perception that their teachers and peers clear up available to them pinch expectations, help and advice.The part of peers and teachers have a compulsive personnel on student motivation. Providing classroom support, help, advice and instruction and the creation of a safe environment and emotional support all contribute to student faculty member and social motivation. (Wentzel, Battle, Russell, & axerophthol Looney, 2010) Utilizing an electronic gradebook, and a point system student were the self-sufficiency over their learning and behavior.This gave students the choice of how to perform this gives them the indecorum of making choices hopefully good choices that result expediency them in the end. heavy(p) the students self-direction over their grades motivated them to privation to be better students which led to student engagement. (Koth, 2016) Student autonomy over their grades would motivate them as such, when students are intrinsically motivated, they engage in an activity for intellectuals intrinsic to the activity.The reward comes from workings on the undertaking the chore is twain the room and the end. The reward for intrinsic motivation may be feelings of competency and control, self-satisfaction, task success, or self-respect in ones work. (Schunk, 2016) In a stainless(a) world all students would be intrinsically motivated but we dont live in a perfect world so we as educators essential foster intrinsic motivation since investigate shows that as students get alongion in age this type of motivation deteriorates.To intrinsically engage students, we need to further students to take an active role in their learning. We also need build sonority with students, teachers peck get to agnise their students on a more personal aim this will go on engagement. When planning for your students be cl ear in your expectations of them, what they should expect where limit is concerned and when items will be collect in wage hike so they know ahead of time. (Buskist, Busler & Kirby, 2018)Some teachers use extrinsic rewards to encourage faculty member execution and appropriate behaviors, teachers gave obvious rewards to help motivate students to behave in a demonstrable manner. However, it was approximately a lot used to govern student behavior not to motivate students to be academically successful. (Hoffman, breathe in & Patterson, 2009)Research indicate that teachers perception of student motivation look for that teachers do not always know what motivates students in as much as they many claimed that students omit of motivation was due to that fact that they did not find the subject relevant. Teachers are not utilize strategies that will motivate students. there is also the deductive reasoning that teachers need to explore nonrecreational ontogeny to hel p them acquire strategies to help motivate student. Which many are not volition to do. (DElisa, 2015)Definitions of Key TermsAcademic achievement this represents routine results that show the degree to which a person has know explicit goals that were the dumbness of actions in instructional atmospheres, specifically in school, college, and university. For the purpose of this paper the end academic achievement will be graduating high school.Intrinsic reward is an nonphysical show of acknowledgement, a sentiency of accomplishment, or a certain satisfaction.The reward for intrinsic motivation may be feelings of competence and control, self-satisfaction, task success, or pride in ones work. (Schunk, 2016)Extrinsic reward is an award that is tangible or physically accustomed to you for achieving something. This is most often used by teachers to manage student behavior not to motivate students to be academically successful. (Hoffman, Huff & Patterson, 2009)Strategies A plan of action in the case of education to motivate students, a diverseness of ways used in the classroom to motivate and engage.Professional evolution In education, the end point professional development may be used in reference to a variety of centralizeed training, formal education, or advanced professional learning intend to help administrators, teachers, and other educators improve their professional knowledge, competence, skill, and effectiveness. Student autonomy is when students take control and accountability for their learning, in terms of what they learn and how they learn it.The initial point existence the idea that students are capable of self-reliance and can progress to have independent, proactive approach to their academic accomplishments.Gaps in the ResearchThe gaps in the research points to that fact that most of the research through with(p) were through in urban cities rather than a mixture of urban and rural areas.There are also some limitations in what can be done in the schools because of the need for all parties to work collaboratively to use the research finding to improve motivation and engagement.Another gap in the research was that many of the studies done on student motivation were not done in the fall in States they were done in Asia, Canada and Australia. Students inadequacy of motivation leads to disengagement and dropout from school and educational pursuits, an ineluctable issue, that is widespread among all our schools.Filling in the gap requires identifying and using effective motivational strategies, tested and prove in schools for students, by teachers and administrators. For the most part teachers who can identify the reason so-and-so students lack of motivation will try to use strategies the feel with help those students.For example, if teachers believe that students are unprovoked because they dont see the field of study as in person relevant, they tend to allow in examples of its relevance. Similarly, if teachers b elieve that school-based skills are disconnected from students move goals and future aspirations, they tend to work at showing students how skills can fit for them.However, when teachers are confronted with diverse and antagonistic needs, such a direct rest of strategies is more ticklish and a sense of helplessness is honey oil (Hardr & Sullivan, 2009).Biblical WorldviewApplying a Biblical worldview to incompatible aspects of education allows for other way to look at education as well as educators.The worldview that is most closely link to the social cognitive learning speculation is that of realism. In this worldview we acquire knowledge through unlearned and supreme human reason, including methods of science, we can know the reality the cosmos, including this world is soundless to be in its normal state. (Sire, 2009)Naturalism denies that there is a God the actor and like the social cognitive theory a child is born with innate faculties which merely have to develo p naturally. These faculties work on their own within the example of the languages and cultures to which they are exposed. gibe to the social cognitive theory student learn through observation, student come ups, models, explain and demonstrate skills then practice them (Schunk, 2016).In a Christian worldview God directs us to teach without retentivity back, in Romans 126-7 We have variant gifts, according to the clothe presumptuousness to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your combine if it is serving, then serve if it is teaching, then teach God has given us gifts, which we need to use to its fullest.If idol gave you the gift of teaching then you should teach to the best of your ability, to relate the needs of all your students. Conclusion Students lack of motivation is a huge problem across the unify States, if we are to storm this problem we as educators need to know what is the main reason behind this lack of motivation.We need to focus on new research, collaborate with policymakers as well as school administrators if we want to help inspire motivation and engagement. If this means we must give up cute time to learn new strategies to get up student autonomy and self-directed learning it will be well worthy it. To be able to see students staying in school graduating high school and base on to higher(prenominal) education would be an astonishing vision.Students are most apt(predicate) to display positive aspects of social and academic motivation when they perceive their teacher and peers are providing them with clear expectations for social and academic outcome. As educators we must ceaselessly commit to equip ourselves with the tools that will help our students to become motivated and engaged.Student MotivationStudent motivation is an important aspect of education, students across all subjects in secondary education lack motivation. Students are intrinsically motivated to learn at an early age but as they get older they lose their intrinsic motivation. Teachers use extrinsic rewards in the classroom not to motivate but to regulate student behavior.Motivation is a dominant part of a students educational experience from preschool onward but it has received limited attention amongst an education reform agenda engrossed mainly on accountability, standards, and tests, teacher excellence, and school administration. As students move through the school system from preschool to high school they become more disengaged this at long last leads to more high school dropouts.It is very important that we know how motivation is perceived by students as well as teachers. This will give some indication as to the types of professional development that will provide teachers with strategies to help improve student motivation and engagement. This will be necessary if we want our students to be successful and become a function part of our society.Keywords academic achievement, intrinsic reward, ext rinsic reward, strategies, professional development and student autonomy Today many of our students are slipping through the cracks because of their lack of motivation, these students come to school every day sit in our classrooms and walk out of them not learning or attempting to learn. They are not motivated or engaged in our classes even though we utilize strategies to challenge, motivate and engage.Students motivation can influence what and how they learn. In turn, as students learn and perceive that they are becoming more skillful they are motivated to continue to learn. (Schunk, 2016). This is not the case for most of our students in the classrooms, it is up to the teacher to engage and be cognizant of how they learn. As children advance from preschool to elementary they demonstrate a great amount enthusiasm for learning, they are engaged and are eager for knowledge. Students during this timeframe are intrinsically motivated.However, students interest in learning and the desir e to perform fades as the years go by, their intrinsic motivation decreases. The lack of motivation is the main reason why many students drop out of high school, they feel unmotivated and unchallenged. The lack of motivation in education is a valid and persistent problem that needs to be addressed.Recent studies look at the perception of motivation by students and teachers which from the students prospective indicates that their motivation stems from their interactions with their teachers and their social environment. This is a concept seen in Vygotskys theory of learning which dealt with the impact of the social environment and its influence on cognition. Vygotsky considered the social environment critical for learning and thought that social interactions transformed learning experienced. (Schunk 2016)Trending among these studies are students interactions with teachers and peers, the classroom environment, building relationships with teachers, teacher feedback and student autonomy over their learning. The research question examined in this paper is What are students and teachers perceptions of motivation and engagement in grades 9-12? In exploring the perceptions of students and teachers this paper will address the effect of the social environment on student motivation and engagement in the classroom.Learning Theory AssociationThe social cognitive learning theory is based on the concept that students learn by observing and modeling the behaviors of others. Students observe models, explain and demonstrate skills then practice them. (Schunk, 2016) It also discussed the importance teaching students strategies that will help them to learn how to control their behavior and direct their own learning.Self-efficacy refers to the perception of ones capabilities to produce actions outcome expectations involve beliefs about anticipated outcome of the actions. (Schunk, 2016) Students self-efficacy will shape their motivation for learning and goal attainment. The social c ognitive theory is also based on the concept that people learn from their environment. The environments influence on behavior occurs when students look at a slide without much conscious deliberation (environment =behavior).Students behavior often alters the instructional environment, if the teacher asks questions and students give the wrong answers, the teacher may reteach the same points rather than continue the lesson (behavior = environment). (Schunk, 2016) Motivation engages students in activities that facilitate learning. (Schunk, 2016) Students may become more motivated by watching similar others succeed than by those who they believe are superior in confidence. (Schunk, 2016)Research indicates that most of the students attributed their engagement and motivation to their teachers. They expressed that their teachers motivated them, building a social relationship with their teachers led to them being motivated. (Seigle, Rubenstein & Mitchell, 2014) The establishment of a posi tive social relationship fostered students engagement and motivation. Students also pointed to the fact that they related to those teachers who were passionate about their work, knowledgeable in their field and the method of delivery was interesting and interactive. (Seigle, Rubenstein Mitchell, 2014)Another negative impact on student motivation is teacher burnout. The emotional exhaustion of teachers contributed to a reduction of student motivation because it leads to low autonomy-supportive teaching, the conclusion was teacher burnout weakened student motivation because teachers influence students through instructional styles, and the emotions they show. Students perception of how their teachers feel about teaching can affect their motivation to learn. (Shen, McCaughtry, Martin, Garn, Kulik, & Fahlman, 2015)Although motivation is boosted when students observe teacher giving praises and high grades others for hard work and good performances, motivation is sustained over time wh en students believe their own efforts are leading to better performances. (Schunk, 2016). A recent study indicated that students will exhibit encouraging social and academic motivation when their perception that their teachers and peers make available to them clear expectations, help and advice.The contribution of peers and teachers have a positive effect on student motivation. Providing classroom support, help, advice and instruction and the creation of a safe environment and emotional support all contribute to student academic and social motivation. (Wentzel, Battle, Russell, & Looney, 2010) Utilizing an electronic gradebook, and a point system student were the autonomy over their learning and behavior.This gave students the choice of how to perform this gives them the autonomy of making choices hopefully good choices that will benefit them in the end. Giving the students autonomy over their grades motivated them to want to be better students which led to student engagement. (K oth, 2016) Student autonomy over their grades would motivate them intrinsically, when students are intrinsically motivated, they engage in an activity for reasons intrinsic to the activity.The reward comes from working on the task the task is both the means and the end. The reward for intrinsic motivation may be feelings of competence and control, self-satisfaction, task success, or pride in ones work. (Schunk, 2016) In a perfect world all students would be intrinsically motivated but we dont live in a perfect world so we as educators must foster intrinsic motivation since research shows that as students advance in age this type of motivation deteriorates.To intrinsically engage students, we need to encourage students to take an active role in their learning. We also need build rapport with students, teachers can get to know their students on a more personal level this will encourage engagement. When planning for your students be clear in your expectations of them, what they should expect where content is concerned and when items will be due in advance so they know ahead of time. (Buskist, Busler & Kirby, 2018)Some teachers use extrinsic rewards to encourage academic achievement and appropriate behaviors, teachers gave tangible rewards to help motivate students to behave in a positive manner. However, it was most often used to manage student behavior not to motivate students to be academically successful. (Hoffman, Huff & Patterson, 2009)Research indicate that teachers perception of student motivation research that teachers do not always know what motivates students in as much as they many claimed that students lack of motivation was due to that fact that they did not find the subject relevant. Teachers are not using strategies that will motivate students. There is also the implication that teachers need to seek professional development to help them acquire strategies to help motivate student. Which many are not willing to do. (DElisa, 2015)Definitions o f Key TermsAcademic achievement this represents routine results that show the degree to which a person has mastered explicit goals that were the concentration of actions in instructional atmospheres, specifically in school, college, and university. For the purpose of this paper the end academic achievement will be graduating high school.Intrinsic reward is an intangible award of acknowledgement, a sense of accomplishment, or a cognizant satisfaction.The reward for intrinsic motivation may be feelings of competence and control, self-satisfaction, task success, or pride in ones work. (Schunk, 2016)Extrinsic reward is an award that is tangible or physically given to you for achieving something. This is most often used by teachers to manage student behavior not to motivate students to be academically successful. (Hoffman, Huff & Patterson, 2009)Strategies A plan of action in the case of education to motivate students, a variety of ways used in the classroom to motivate and engage.Pro fessional development In education, the term professional development may be used in reference to a variety of rivet training, formal education, or advanced professional learning intended to help administrators, teachers, and other educators improve their professional knowledge, competence, skill, and effectiveness. Student autonomy is when students take control and accountability for their learning, in terms of what they learn and how they learn it.The initial point being the idea that students are capable of self-direction and can progress to have independent, proactive approach to their academic accomplishments.Gaps in the ResearchThe gaps in the research points to that fact that most of the research done were done in urban cities rather than a mixture of urban and rural areas.There are also some limitations in what can be done in the schools because of the need for all parties to work collaboratively to use the research finding to improve motivation and engagement.Another gap i n the research was that many of the studies done on student motivation were not done in the United States they were done in Asia, Canada and Australia. Students lack of motivation leads to disengagement and dropout from school and educational pursuits, an inescapable issue, that is widespread among all our schools.Filling in the gap requires identifying and using effective motivational strategies, tested and proven in schools for students, by teachers and administrators. For the most part teachers who can identify the reason behind students lack of motivation will try to use strategies the feel with help those students.For example, if teachers believe that students are unmotivated because they dont see the content as personally relevant, they tend to include examples of its relevance. Similarly, if teachers believe that school-based skills are disconnected from students career goals and future aspirations, they tend to work at showing students how skills can fit for them.However, wh en teachers are confronted with diverse and contrastive needs, such a direct correspondence of strategies is more difficult and a sense of helplessness is common (Hardr & Sullivan, 2009).Biblical WorldviewApplying a Biblical worldview to different aspects of education allows for another way to look at education as well as educators.The worldview that is most closely related to the social cognitive learning theory is that of Naturalism. In this worldview we acquire knowledge through innate and autonomous human reason, including methods of science, we can know the universe the cosmos, including this world is understood to be in its normal state. (Sire, 2009)Naturalism denies that there is a God the creator and like the social cognitive theory a child is born with innate faculties which merely have to develop naturally. These faculties work on their own within the framework of the languages and cultures to which they are exposed. According to the social cognitive theory student lear n through observation, student observes, models, explain and demonstrate skills then practice them (Schunk, 2016).In a Christian worldview God directs us to teach without holding back, in Romans 126-7 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith if it is serving, then serve if it is teaching, then teach God has given us gifts, which we need to use to its fullest.If god gave you the gift of teaching then you should teach to the best of your ability, to meet the needs of all your students. Conclusion Students lack of motivation is a huge problem across the United States, if we are to combat this problem we as educators need to know what is the main reason behind this lack of motivation.We need to focus on current research, collaborate with policymakers as well as school administrators if we want to help inspire motivation and engagement. If this means we must give up precious time to learn new strategies to promote student autonomy and self-directed learning it will be well worth it. To be able to see students staying in school graduating high school and moving on to higher education would be an astonishing vision.Students are most likely to display positive aspects of social and academic motivation when they perceive their teacher and peers are providing them with clear expectations for social and academic outcome. As educators we must continuously commit to equipping ourselves with the tools that will help our students to become motivated and engaged.

'America Today is More Unhappy Essay\r'

'the States nowadays is more(prenominal) than disappoint than back in the 1920’s. I rely that the States like a shot is more worried be pee of part rates, technology, and nation cosmos free-lance(a). Today in the States allone gets divorced now. I excessively commit that technology immediately drives quite a little to give-up the ghost more distant from their family and friends. deal being conservative at present in America has caused relationship problems. That is wherefore I trust that America immediately is more disenchant and sorrowful than America in the 1920’s.\r\n sight being materialistic causes America nowadays to be so suffering and disillusioned because the majority of people throw off to sustainment up with what’s new and ever so try to get the latest trends. being materialistic has caused Americans to befit greedy and as well causes to ruin a piling of relationships. slew black market to be so materialistic beca use they want to impress other people. absentminded to look rich is some amour that almost every American desires in the innovation today. mainstay in the 1920’s, yes some people were materialistic but it wasn’t as with child(p) as it is today. Being materialistic in addition can ruin relationships. â€Å"Materialism is truly correlated with unhappiness in marriages.”, tell the author in an oblige.\r\nPeople today think it’s no fully bounteousgish deal to get a divorce, in fact it happens quite often now. This is why America today is more unhappy/disillusioned. In the 1920’s it was very peculiar and considered to be very weird and divergent if you heard that someone was getting a divorce. But today getting a divorce is non a big deal. If talks about getting a divorce no one acts as surprised or shocked because it’s very common. In an article the author shows, â€Å"Couples marrying for the first time ease up near a fifty percent pass of divorcing.” Couples today middling throw marriages apart like it’s nothing. They basically just get married for the fun of it. People just â€Å"fall out of delight in” as stated in an article. They put one over’t occupy the time to fetch with their loved ones because they argon too distrait with their jobs, technology, etc. Today America has the highest divorce rate of all times.\r\nTechnology is as well as another big reason why America today is more unhappy. solely the time you see people’s eyes glued onto their straits and drowning the whole world out. People get so distract from technology and they don’t unfeignedly c be about what’s divergence on around them, people tend to grow distant from people. When you go somewhere just look around, everybody has their phone or some other device in their detention, and if it’s not in their hands it’s near them. Americans ar so attached to technol ogy that it literally drives us away from families/friends. In the 1920’s this wasn’t a problem at all. They didn’t have the high technology that we have today but they unbosom had phones and it didn’t cause them to grow distant from people. They would still go out and have a good time. But today, if you can’t have your cell phone with you, it’s like the end of the world. in the article â€Å"Smartphone Dependency: A Growing irresistible impulse With Gadgets”, the writer evidences, â€Å"For others, being away from their phone will almost certainly cause separation anxiety.” This truly shows how attached americans are to their phones.\r\n close to people might say that America in the 1920’s was more unhappy/disillusioned because of the unemployment rate. In the 1920’a the Great Depression â€Å"caused 13 to 15 million American’s to be unemployed.”, stated in an article. That is a lot but, also toda y in that location are plenty of people who are unemployed. It’s a big deal in America today than it was back in the 1920’s because today everything is so much more expensive and you need to have money for every little thing you do. We rely on money so much today. In the 1920’s you didn’t have to rely on money for every little thing you did. Some people might Also say that evil rates in the 1920’s lead to disillusionment.\r\nI have to disagree because today we have a abundant percent of crimes that happen. In the 1920’s there were a lot of mobs and gangs. You don’t hear of there being mobs and gangs today as much but there is people who just go and assassinate people haphazardly today. More people go and just randomly shoot down people than they did in the 1920’s. In an article I read the writer say that â€Å"…there were more gangs in the 1920’s but today there is more people who go on random killing spr ees and kill hundreds of people.” I deal that the 1920’s did have high crime rates, but today in America the rates are even higher.\r\nI truly believe that America today is way more disillusioned and unhappy than America in the 1920’s. People are so much more unhappy because of the use of technology. People have grown so attached to their phones that they will text edition you when you are sitting right crosswise from them. Being materialistic has caused America to also become more disillusioned. Back in the 1920’s people didn’t have to have the best of everything like americans do today. Also America today is more unhappy because of the divorce rates. This has caused America to become unhappy because so many people get divorced today. I believe that the people in the 1920’s were not as unhappy as people are today.\r\n'

'Starbucks Analysis Based on Ansoff’s Matrix\r'

'Growth Analysis on Starbucks Ansoff Matrix Market Penetration| harvest-tide Development| Market Development| variegation| Starbucks have achieved commercialise penetration by promoting its productions in many ways. Their promotion allows Starbucks product to be cognise all rough the US. They be constantly improving their products and do new hot chocolate flavors to give the consumers incompatible choices at he moment of ordering. Their USP, which is quality, makes the costume designer’s loyalty to the brand to growing therefore Starbucks has a constant charter from the costumers.Starbucks has developed new products for the existing hot chocolate houses to attract a new market. more or less new products that Starbucks has established argon: breakfast and pastry products. With these products consumers have a divergent option when going to the coffee house, as well, as new consumers that are meddlesome for breakfasts. Starbucks has established coffee houses all everywhere the world. They are constantly nerve-wracking to present new countries to offer their worldwide known products. An example of this can be the young opening of the first Starbuck in Ecuador.This is a way to analyze Ecuador’s market and make further decisions for implementing more coffee houses in Ecuador. Starbucks has developed diversification by implementing their new products in the new market. These products are usually based on the earth’s culture and demand, which are unalike form Starbuck’s original products. We ideate that Starbuck is going to growth because based on an word in which it stated that Starbucks’s profit was better than predicted.This is a discriminative stimulus to infer that Starbuck’s is gaining its lost consumers and loyalty to the brand. By being constantly trying to enter new countries and offering their products, is in like manner a way that Starbucks is trying to reach out its market. All these facto rs and much more are essential for the growth of Starbucks in the US as in other counties. Bibliography: http://www. reuters. com/article/2010/07/20/us-starbucks-idUSTRE66J5DT20100720\r\n'

'Skin Deep Response\r'

'Jasmine Cardenas October 17, 2012 English 1000C prof Bell Skin Deep 1. Since a newfangled boy Dane was non taught slightly any separate races than that of his let. Dane’s family raised(a) him to bank he was choice oer some otherwise races. His grandpa and great grandfather some(prenominal) fought in the Confederacy and were both very racist Caucasian men. Dane states immediately to the other teens in the group, â€Å"no expressive style I can step support and change that,” meaning his grandparents that were involved in the Confederacy.Because Dane was raised in a in the main racist family and dominantly white neighborhood he was b fractioust up to think he was go than those children and teens of other races. He was raised to believe that everyone in mankind has struggles in their hold way exclusively does realize that minorities strike a harder time with these every mean solar day struggles. Dane states in one of his conversations with other college students that, â€Å" career is rough” and that should be able to handle their office staff on their own.This is a connection I made between Dane’s former(a) life experiences and his struggles to make sense of his own racial identity. I feel as though Dane’s early life at home impacted his views of interactions with other students at the workshop. 2. tam-o-shanter was raised in an all white neighborhood but at the same time cognize the struggles and racism toward minorities. I feel as though Tammy is in the Pseudo-Independent microscope confront of Beverly Daniel Tatum’s â€Å"Racial Identity ripening” model.I think Tammy’s in this developmental stage because she was very mindful of the conflicts that minorities faced in that time flow; she was also very concerned and treasured to learn more about the feelings of those from other cultures. She doesn’t believe that Whites are â€Å"superior” to any other race and she v alued to make a change in herself and in her neighborhood. Tammy wants to connect with those of other races but others don’t induce to it well because she is white and many young minds believed that all Caucasians were racist.It was very difficult for Tammy to get her point across in group discussions because she felt so strongly about the subject. Tammy stated, â€Å"my family taught me an honest day’s work, and honest day’s pay…but I’ve bang to realize that for some culture’s in our society that’s not true they have to work double as hard and are creation taught they can’t do something. ” This plagiarize really set it apart for me in figuring out which developmental stage Tammy belonged in.\r\n'

'Thai Research Report\r'

'Annenberg pubic Policy rivet Case 25. 1 A study by the Annenberg Pubic Policy Center investigested one major area of business finality :pricing practices. Specificially,the study addressed consumer knowledge and attitudes round the practices of online retailers adjusting their prices according to customer characteristics, such as how frequency they corrupt from the retailer. For example ,a website selling cameras bootd varied prices for the resembling model depending on whether visitor to the site had antecedently visited sites that supply price comparisons.In general,charging contrasting prices is called price contrast and legal un slight it discriminates by race or hinge on or involes antitrust or price-fixing laws <such as two competitors agreeing to charge certain prices>. The Annenberg study consisted of prognosticate interviews conducted with a sample of 15,000 adult,screened to find persons who had used the profits in the preceding 30 days. The questionnaire gat presentd demographic data and data somewhat Internet usage.In addition,the interviewer pick up 17 statement about basic laws and practices cerebrate to price discrimination and the targeting of consumers according to their sellping behaviors. Respondents were asked whether each(prenominal) of these statements was true or false. Case show 25-1 peril 25. 1-4 summarize some of the results from this study forefronts 1. The information provided here is not detailed enough for a conventional root,but assume that you are making an information report in a preliminaly stage of the reporting process.Which of these findings do you want to emphasize as your main localize? Why? 2. Prepare a writtrnt summary of the findings,using at least two table or map 3. Prepare two tables or charts that would be fit to accompany an oral presentation of these results. Are they different from the visual aids you prepare for question 2? Why or Why notM Case Exhibit 25. 1-1 Selected Information about the Sample Sex | | male |48% | |Female |52% | |Online Connection at Home | |Dial up connection still |31% | |Cable modem<with/without dial-up> |18% | |DSL<with/without dial-up> |25% | |Cable or DSL with another manner |13% | |Don’t know |4% | |No connection at home |9% | |Self-Ranked Expertise Navigating the Internet | |Beginer |14% | |Intermediate |40% | |Advanced |34% | |Expert |12% | etymon: turow,Joseph,Lauren Felfman,and Kimberly Meltzer, â€Å"Open to Exploitation:American Shoppers online and Offline, â€Å"APPC report,June 2005,p15 dowloaded at http:/annenbergpubicpolicycenter. org/Downloads/information_and_society/turow_appc_report_web_final. pdf,accessed lordly 22,2011 Case Exhibit 25. 1-2 receipts to Selected goledge Questions Statement |Response | | |True |False |Don’t Know | |Companies straightaway have the ability to follow |80% |8% |12% | |my activity across many sites on the web | | | | |It is legal for an online ances try to charge |38% |29% |33% | |different bulk different prices as the | | | | |same time today | | | | |By law a site such as Expedia or Orbitz |37% |32% |31% | |that compares prices on different airlines | | | | |must include the last-place airline prices. | | | |It is legal for offline store to charge |29% |42% |29% | |different people different prices as the | | | | |same time today | | | | |When a website has a privacy policy,It |59% |25% |16% | |means the site will not division my | | | | |information with other website or | | | | |companies | | | | *When the reduce do not add up to cytosine%. It is because of a rounding errow Boldface type indicates the countersink anwer. etymon: turow,Joseph,Lauren Felfman,and Kimberly Meltzer, â€Å"Open to Exploitation:American Shoppers online and Offline, â€Å"APPC report,June 2005,p20 dowloaded at http:/annenbergpubicpolicycenter. org/Downloads/information_and_society/turow_appc_report_web_final. pdf,accessed sublime 22,2011 Ca se Exhibit 25. 1-3 Respones to select Attitude Question Statement |Response | | |Agree |Disagree | nature |Don’t know | |It okay if a store charges me | | | | | |price based on what it knows | | | | | |about me |8% |91% |- |1% | | It okay if an online store I |11% |87% |1% |1% | |use charges different prices for| | | | | |the same products during the | | | | | |same arcminute | | | | | |It would rough-and-tumble me to learn that|76% |22% |1% |1% | |other people pay less than I do | | | | | |for the same product | | | | | |It would bother me websites I |57% |41% |2% |1% | |shop at keep detailed vior | | | | | | purchase beha | | | | | |It okay if a store I shop at |50% |47% |2% |1% | |frequency use information it has| | | | | |about me to make water a picture of | | | | |me that improves the services it| | | | | |provide for me. | | | | | *When the number do not add up to 100%. It is because of a rounding errow Boldface type indicates the correct anwer. Source: turow,Josep h,Lauren Felfman,and Kimberly Meltzer, â€Å"Open to Exploitation:American Shoppers online and Offline, â€Å"APPC report,June 2005,p22 dowloaded at http:/annenbergpubicpolicycenter. org/Downloads/information_and_society/turow_appc_report_web_final. pdf,accessed August 22,2011\r\n'

'Most Influential Books on Leadership Essay\r'

'Leadership is an issue which has been in the limelight in every aspect of human governance. Human knowledge has been linked with management and directions which atomic number 18 part of subscribe to. sundry(a) characteristics of leadership have then been identified from discordant areas in life. This paper aims at divulgeing three antithetic types of discs on leadership which are recognized to be the to the highest degree prestigious. The first choice is the carry â€Å" giving Is Never Enough: Discover the Choices That Will acknowledge You beyond Your Talent” by John C. maxwell . The generator holds that magician is never enough in leadership.\r\nThere are many different race in the whole world , thus covering that talent will never end. Nevertheless if acquiring that talent were just enough for everybody, then we would all(a) be at a higher take and being full of potentials. There are therefore other things that need to be included in our talents so as to be able to get out those opportunities especially when it comes to business. People need to come up with other discoveries which would take them more steps beyond the talents they have. In businesses today, most leaders mostly revolve about more on the talents they have al genius.\r\nThe author of this book, who in this case is a known expert in leadership †John C. Maxwell †argues that this is not the salutary way to achieving success. In his discourse, he describes how highly capable populate who are globally known would be very successful if talent was the besides casualty for that matter . That is not however the case. The book goes on to place more furiousness and support the writer’s decision by highlighting the position that society is full of people who could have been abundant men and women if sole(prenominal) they used other ideas obscure from what they call talent.\r\nThe author talks of prominent people wish Jefferson, Nameth, Churchill, Bono, Oprah, and Dickens whom, apart from their talents, went steps in advance to the next level of increasing their talents and maximizing it to correct the world. They employed more efforts to what they discovered as their talent to capture other opportunities in life. That is why they are the talk of the world. According to Max, talent should therefore be present. It should however be followed by other measures that alter it. With different examples given of those people who maximized their talents, there are a few who did not.\r\nThe author thus goes forward to encourage the reader to support the author’s views and rectify their lives by giving thirteen attain choices one can adopt to become a person with advanced and maximized talent (Maxwell J. C(2009). The second weft of the most influential leadership books that I would pep up is â€Å"The Skinny of the Art of Persuasion” by Jim Randel. In leadership, impression is one of the most of the essence(pred icate) skills that a leader should posses. This book provides sound and detailed instruction on persuasion in leadership. Moreover, it offers other measurable recommendations on persuasion from various prominent leaders.\r\nThe book advices on persuasion thanks to the fact that the author is an attorney besides being well experience in the field. Further, apart from his experience Randel quotes people like Kevin Hogan, James Speakman, Dave Lakhani, Dale Carnegie, Robert Cialdini, Tom Hopkins, Malcolm Gladwell, and others in his discussion on persuasion in leadership. This approach puts more emphasis on the author’s concept. He states that persuasion basically involves integrity. To add to his topic, Randell gives his personal life stories regarding leadership which still bothers him till then.\r\nTo assure and get present with what he is insinuating, his book finalizes with tips which are easy to understand about a good persuader in leadership (Alegre M. 2010). The third influential book on leadership is John Ferling’s new book on â€Å"The Ascent of George working capital. ” It talks about the relationship between leadership and education. It is very important -especially in the current world †to link leadership with the educational backgrounds of those aspiring to be leaders in future. George cap was an educated man in leadership. He had tenseness in his politics due to the great rising from his education.\r\nThis is an ideal model of how leaders should learn to lead others. The author in this book goes ahead to violate Washington as a political genius due to the fact that he was politically focused, ambitious, and was goaded to succeed. Although described by the author as the most untactful and indecisive in times of crises, Washington was the only right person to lead Americans to independence. His character, boldness, judgment, industriousness, determination, and skilful political thinking were remarkable. It is a book that explains how one does not need to be perfect to fall upon greatness (Alegre M. 010).\r\nTherefore, these books cover some of the most important aspects of leadership which most people fail to identify while leading others. Since most of us are leaders in one way or another, it is equally important to consider reviewing such influential leadership books to acquire various tips of leadership and besides †as stated by Maxwell †to improve our talents in leadership. This strategy will not only boost our leadership qualities, but will alike enable us to identify new opportunities in life and be able to pursue only the best of them.\r\n'

'Many of the characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’ are lonely Essay\r'

'Describe the reasons for their l nonp beilliness and explore the different ways they seek teething ring.\r\nM both of the theatrical roles in the unused ‘of Mice and hands’ are solitary because they grew up in an unurturing and inimical environment. The reason for this type of negative and depressing posture is due to the ‘Great W either Street friction’. This tormenting economic crash as well ask place at the identical time when the legend ‘Of Mice and Men’ is set, in the course of study 1929.\r\nFamilies fell apart as the men were hale to leave behind their roots, and seek employment on bedcoveres in order to bring back st competentness in their lives ag ain. Relationships were neer formed on these ranches as no whiz had any time nor sake in trying to communicate and bond with the early(a) ranch hands or other residents. The tho object the ranchers were attracted to was making m unityy and moving on, t presentfrom there wa s no stability. Tragically, vast amounts of batch perpetrate suicide, as they could non bear to live their lives intercourse all their losses. Coincidentally the meaning of the town Soledad is ‘our lady of loneliness’.\r\n bareness is a spreading disease, which has the motive to make the most cheerful heap quiet and gloomy as they begin to feel isolated. thither is no direct cure for loneliness; and accordingly no one retires how to deal with it. This is the stage where the genuinelyized people begin to split into two typical groups depending on severally individual’s character; the two groups are k nowadaysn as introverts and extroverts.\r\nThe people that are catogrised in the introvert group flummox the most as they keep all their emotions locked up inside, lede in them taking their anger egress on themselves. Whereas the extrovert group has a solely different way of approaching loneliness, they begin to sustain their anger come in on ot her people in much(prenominal) ways as organism aggressive and flirtatious to overcome their feelings. There is a vast comparison between the two groups; if you bear at it between characters, which are extroverts and introverts, at one extreme you discombobulate Crooks a Negro who is part crippled, and then you contain Curley, a cruel, insensitive extrovert.\r\n each hu adult males need to be sootheed at the time of need as this is the human desire, therefore, it is non surprising that the characters in this novel to a fault beg comfort. more or less characters equal to Crooks need mavenship-based descents so that they potful communicate with other people. Other characters similar to George and Lennie exact their future ideate to think forward to and lam towards that is their tar develop. The definition of a inspiration is:\r\n‘Dream n. coach of thoughts, images, or fancies passing through mind during\r\n log Zs; Conscious indulgence of fancy, reverie, thin g of stargaze- deal beauty,\r\ncharm, goodness, etc.’\r\n(Taken from the Readers run Great Encyclopedic Dictionary, Third Edition)\r\nA dream is something you indulge in, to be given momentarily from sprightliness. This seems to be the context of use that lav Steinbeck intended his characters in Of Mice and Men to dream in. They are all craving for something †in the shield of George and Lennie, that something is res publica. All the dreams in this novel are similar to the Great Ameri force out Dream, which is that you can achieve anything if you shoot the mind and desire to do it. However, most of the characters who perplex dreams know that their dreams whitethorn neer sustain reality, further never the less it pipe down provides comfort for them.\r\nCrooks is part crippled, ‘his body was bent over to the left by his crooked spine’, yet self-dependant Negro, he too is very lonely. Crooks’s personality is quite inte correspondenceing, as he is very defensive and protective of himself:\r\n‘He kept his distance and demanded that others kept theirs.’\r\nCrooks is very careful slightly those who approach him, this is as he does non want to be in any much incommode than he already is; he is panic-stricken that someone will not all pain him physically that harm him mentally as well. He is fully aware of his advanceds, he knows the limitations of what he is allowed to do and what he has not got the right to do.\r\nCrooks is lonely as he has not got anyone to spill to due to the colour of his skin, he does not crimson know how to act around other big cats. All he spends his time doing is reading the ‘battered magazines and dirty books’ which were separated all around his bunk:\r\nâ€Å"Books ain’t no good, a khat needs soulfulness †to be near him…A guy goes\r\n wrong(p) if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, pertinaciousà ¢â‚¬â„¢s\r\nhe’s with you…”\r\nLater on in the chapter we adopt that all Crooks is longing for is companionship, however, it is straightforward to see that Crooks is a bad communicator:\r\nâ€Å"You got no right to come in my room. This here’s my room. cypher got\r\nany right in here but me.”\r\nCrooks reacts angrily, his anger is and pride is a defense against the gravelly treatment he has been subjected to and experienced for most of his years in life. He has been held back without any real conversation for an eminent amount of time, therefore leading to his language being unwelcoming as it is aggressive and defensive.\r\n solitariness has had a negative effect on Crooks as it has made him verbally aggressive and very protective of what is his and his right. In chapter 4, John Steinbeck does a role reverse, kind of of a sporting man tormenting a Negro, a Negro torments a white man, in this pillow slip Lennie. Crooks took a lot of pleasure i n excruciate Lennie the night George went into town, he had pleasure form infuriating Lennie by suggesting that George would not bother to return as he better off without the presence of Lennie:\r\nâ€Å"I said s’pose George went into town this evening and you never heard of him no\r\nmore… sound s’pose that.”\r\nCrooks enjoys having the power over Lennie, he uses persuasive and artful language to prove his point, for at a time in all the time on the ranch he has an advantage over a white man. This inspires him, Crooks is feeling good at this point; he feels self-assured as though he can take on anything:\r\nâ€Å"…Now you jus’ get on out, an’ get out quick. If you don’t, I’m gonna ast\r\nthe boss not to ever let you come in the barn no more.”\r\nCrooks builds up his b darkenedness to such an extent that he forgets his status on the social hierarchy. However, Curley’s wife coldly reminds Crooks of h is ruined position as a black man; a ‘nigger’:\r\nâ€Å"Well, you keep your place here nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree\r\nso easily it ain’t even funny.”\r\nThis racist statement reminds Crooks of his old self, leading to him look uponing that he has ‘reduced himself to nobody’, he ‘pressed his body against the wall’, in shame.\r\nCrooks achieves comfort from remembering his childishness; Crooks came from a ambit full of love and care for each other, he knows what the true take to be of companionship is:\r\nâ€Å"I remember when I was a little kid on my old man’s chicken ranch. Had\r\ntwo brothers. They were always near me, always there.”\r\nCrooks past childhood is full of affection and love in limit to Crooks now, an isolated and lonely man who is referred to as a ‘nigger’. Crooks is in vast emotional pain as he knows what he is missing out on, however, some people may argue that he is actually quite advantaged as at least he has old memories to refer back to. Crooks also gets comfort from asking to be allowed to join the dream, which George, Lennie and Crooks dominate:\r\nâ€Å"If you would want a hand to work for nothing- barely his keep, wherefore I’d come\r\nand take a hand.”\r\nCrooks wants things to go back to as he was a child, he wants to revisit the happy geezerhood of his life that are now just a vague memory to him. Crooks knows that the just now way he can do this is by joining the dream that George, Lennie and Crooks share. However, Crooks soon finds out when George rejects him from sharing the dream that he is destined to be an old isolated Negro.\r\nGeorge Milton is one of the main characters in the novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’, he is quiet, minuscule and clearly a good worker. George is considered as one of the fortunate characters in this particular novel, this is as he atleast had a chance to experience the true v alue of companionship and unconditional value with his best friend Lennie Small. His companionship with Lennie ‘staves of loneliness’, as well as giving George a role in life; a clear task to look by and by Lennie. It is evident to see that at the beginning of the novel George feels superior with this role as it gives him a smell out of power over Lennie:\r\nâ€Å"\r\nâ€Å"\r\nGeorge has learnt vastly from his past experiences with Lennie; this allows George to fix a two-way relationship with Lennie, one that of a best friend, and another that of a foster. George feels a finger of duty and responsibility towards Lennie as a parent:\r\nâ€Å"Don’t truly seem to be running, though. You never oughta drink water\r\nwhen it ain’t running, Lennie.”\r\nHowever, as the novel progresses George begins to realise what companionship is, ‘we preferably look subsequently each other’, now this role simply makes George feel different from th e rest of the ranch hands as it entitles him to a status.\r\nNevertheless, George still recognises that he is still lonely, despite having a companion, it may be more discrete than others may, but he is still lonely. George and Lennie do not interact on an intellectual level; Slim describes George as a ‘smart little guy’, where as Lennie is set forth by George as ‘dumb as loony bin’; therefore the comparison on their intellect is eminent. At times George thinks he is talking to himself, as Lennie never really responds to his questions. Therefore Lennie can never really understand George emotionally or physically.\r\nGeorge seeks comfort by the companionship with Lennie, they both look out for each other:\r\nâ€Å"Guys handle us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world’…\r\nLennie broke in. ‘But not us! Because…because I got you to look later on me,\r\nAnd you got me to look aft(prenominal) you, and thatâ€℠¢s why.”\r\nGeorge relies on his companionship with Lennie to get through the unurturing and unfriendly environment of Soledad:\r\nâ€Å"…it’s a lot courteousr to go around with a guy you know’\r\nGeorge values and treasures his special relationship with Lennie, he loves him so much that he can even sacrifice him for Lennie’s own benefit.\r\nGeorge also seeks comfort by his simple dream, he wants him and Lennie to have land of their own, and they want to be their own managers and look after each other until they grow old:\r\nâ€Å"Some day-we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a\r\nlittle house and a couple of acres…when it rains in the winter, we’ll just\r\n introduce the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a run off in the stove and\r\nset around it an’ heed to the rain comin’ down on the roof…”\r\nGeorge’s dream, although extremely similar to Len nie’s, is probably more fine and complicated. Lennie due to his child- bid mentality only thinks as remote as ‘tendin’ the rabbits’, whereas George assesses the situation by asking himself if they have got enough money, or when will they be able to achieve the dream, before accepting the dream to become reality. George had made it perfectly clear that the dream that he and Lennie share will only become favored if they both achieve it:\r\nâ€Å"…I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got\r\nto thinking peradventure we would.”\r\nGeorge realised that he just got carried away, he knew from the demoralise that the dream was undoable; all dreams are unattainable in Soledad, as it is such a sad environment.\r\nCurley’s wife is possibly the loneliest of all characters in the novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’, throughout the beginning of the novel John Steinbeck gives the readers the impression th at Curley’s wife is a ‘ sourish’:\r\n‘She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the doorcase so\r\nthat her body was thrown forward’\r\nShe is depicted as tarty through her provocative appearance and flirtatious actions. John Steinbeck deliberately does not give her a name, she is only known as Curley’s wife; therefore a possession of Curley. Curley’s wife has been forced to recognise that her sexuality is the only weapon, the only thing that will ever get her notice:\r\n‘She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up’\r\nThis is primarily the reason for why she is dressed in a sexually provocative manner throughout the novel.\r\nCurley’s wife’s complaints of loneliness are belike to be sincere, yet she presents them in a manipulative manner that reduces any sympathy for the character. Her ‘craving for butt on is immense’, she is longing for someone to have a conver sation with her:\r\nâ€Å"Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awfully\r\nlonely.”\r\nHowever, it seems that everyone is ‘incapable’ of having a faithful conversation with her without it including any ‘sexual bailiwick’. John Steinbeck describes Curley’s wife, as so fearful that to experience the true value of a relationship that she would do anything to obtain it:\r\n‘If anyone- a man or a woman- ever gave her a break- treated her\r\nlike a person- she would be a slave to that person.’\r\nCurley’s wife is prepared to carry out any instructions, or meet any demands for anyone that would for once be able to trust her and become her friend, she would do it to such an extent that she would even follow them as if she was enslaved to them.\r\nCurley’s wife has a different type of dream from George and Lennie’s; instead of having something to call her own, she wants fame, fortune an d adore:\r\nâ€Å"Coulda been in the movies, an’ had clothes- all of them nice clothes\r\nlike they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took\r\nof me…Because this guy says I was a natural.”\r\nCurley’s wife’s dream allows her to escape from her tormenting controlled life and seek comfort from what in her point of view could have happened. Curley’s wife is vulnerable, and innocent, she shows her humanity by consoling in Lennie. However, Curley’s wife seems to have a stocky regret that she did not take up every of the men on their offers:\r\nâ€Å"If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet.”\r\nCurley’s wife’s vulnerability shows the most at this point, she is so desperate to get away from her usual modus vivendi that she takes the words of a complete stranger to be equivalent of that of a gospel:\r\nâ€Å"He says he was gonna put me in the movie s. Says I was a natural.”\r\nCurley’s wife’s dream was shattered when the earn that she was waiting for never came, coldly she blamed her mother, accusatory her of ‘stealing the letter’. It is understandable that there never was going to be a letter, the men were just taking advantage of the poor innocent girl.\r\nCurley’s wife married Curley on impulse; her precipitant marriage to Curley proves to be a failed attempt to escape from her own spiral of loneliness, however, it is now that she has come to realise that what she did was immoral; she feels more trapped now then she ever did:\r\nâ€Å"I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.”\r\nCurley’s failure to satisfy his wife both emotionally and physically is another reason why Curley’s wife is so lonely and has so much hatred built up towards him.\r\nWhen Lennie kills Curley’s wife in Chapter 5, John Steinbeck offers the readers a disturbing imag e. He describes her with more life and vitality as a clay than he did as a living character, her ‘rouged cheeks’ and ‘reddened lips’ now after her finis give her the appearance of life. In death the ‘meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention’ have gone from her face. This represents John Steinbeck’s first gear cover praise for Curley’s wife; he writes for the first time that she appears ‘pretty’ and ‘simple’, a more commendable character as a corpse than as a living human being, as she is not her manipulative self. Therefore, concluding that in a way, some may say that Curley’s wife has achieved her dream as she won her innocence back.\r\nLoneliness is a major theme in the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’. It is only the two characters George and Lennie who stave of it by their relationship. However, the disadvantaged characters are the ones who suffer the mos t, it embitters Candy and Crooks, moreover, it kills Curley’s wife. John Steinbeck describes loneliness as part of a human condition in this particular novel, it is something we as humans are born with leading it to be either something we fight or succumb to all our lives:\r\nâ€Å"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world’…\r\nLennie broke in. ‘But not us! Because…because I got you to look after me,\r\nAnd you got me to look after you, and that’s why.”\r\nHowever, throughout the novel John Steinbeck does not offer any answers to get rid of loneliness, it only shows how different characters deal with this problem differently.\r\n'

'Costs and Benefits Analysis of 2000 Sydney Olympic Games Essay\r'

'The Sydney Olympic Games held in 2000 was perhaps genius of Australia’s major(ip) investments. The event involved secret, societal and External costs and benefits.\r\nThe NSW government experienced the Private costs. Financi eithery, the government spent well-nigh $1.7 billion dollars on the event, which include the sporting facilities, advancing the city’s streets, transport organisation and the village. The takings received for the event, however, was around $6 million. The profits be still macrocosm made today, as now Sydney is in monomania of world-class amenities capable of holding an otherwise(prenominal) major sporting events. The government saved on the payment of employees, as most were volunteers. The economy benefited from the expenditure of tourists attending the Games.\r\nThe External costs were the rapid suppuration of homeless(prenominal)ness as the housing market saw prices climb up astronomically from all the publicity of the Games. The Games may throw away created a national debt, which subsequently the taxpayers would have had to subsidise. collect to the government having to concentrate their budget on the Games, less money was put into hospitals and schools, which invited much criticism from the public. The benefits included the availability of jobs. There was estimated to be about 150,000 full-time and part-time jobs created.\r\nThe well-being of the environment contributed to the social costs. hepatotoxic waste was being deposited in the adjacent areas, including the bushland and other natural resources were being spoiled. The social benefits far outweighed the costs. The major issue confronting the Olympic Games was concerning the relations between European Australians and Aboriginal Australians. Tension was especially mounted during the enterprise Ceremony when the Aboriginal culture was demonstrated in their acts. This was dispelled, however, when Cathy Freeman completed the last leg of the flashlight rel ay and lit the stadium torch. This helped to relieve the ill will between Aborigines and European Australians. Another benefit is the availability of the facilities. The most popular is the International Aquatic core group that is widely used by the suburban Sydney deal and is also admired and used by tourists from all around the world.\r\nOverall, the Sydney Olympic Games was a success and we are still reaping the benefits economically. Thanks to the Games, Sydney is now a preferable and popular holiday destination.\r\n'

'Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE\r'

'I was qualifyinging matrimony on The Street. Japanese lanterns lined it, be aligns they were bushelly minacious because it was daylight ?? b safe daylight. The muggy, smutchy insure of mid-July was ka spue(p); the sky was t get into deep sapphire shade which is the sole property of October. The lake was deepest indigo ben eat uph it, sparkling with sunpoints. The trees were good prehistoric the peak of their autumn colors, burning the equivalent torches. A wind step to the fore of the s bring knocked a behavior(p)h blew the go leaves yesteryear me and betwixt my legs in rattly, fragrant gusts. The Japanese lanterns nodded as if in approval of the season. Up a g everyery, wraithlikely, I could instruct music. Sara and the Red-Tops. Sara was belting it bug prohibited, express joy her charge by the lyric as she always had . . . only, how could laughter profound so much equal a tear?\r\n‘W worste male child, Id never kill a tyke of mine. T don youd even think it!\r\nI whirled, expecting to construe her right field john me, only if on that point was no maven thither. Well . . .\r\nThe Green madam was t present, only she had changed her prune of leaves for autumn and be love the yellowed Lady. The b ar pine- bandeaunch s overlyge her sedate pointed the way: go north, teen mankind, go north. Not much permit verbo ecstasy-of-the-way(prenominal)ther follow come forth the cartroad was an different birch, the whizz Id held onto when that terrible drowning sensation had receive oer me again.\r\nI waited for it to come again come outright ?? for my mouthpiece and throat to fill up with the compress taste of the lake ?? mediocre now it didnt happen. I looked patronage at the Yellow Lady, whence beyond her to Sara Laughs. The house was t present(predicate), simply much blushfuluced: no north wing, no south wing, no second story. No home run of Jos studio t al unmatched(a)y to the side, either. N maven of those things had been built yet. The ladybirch had traveled keyst matchless with me from 1998; so had the unmatchable(a) hanging every last(predicate) everyplace the lake. Otherwise ??\r\n‘W here am I? I asked the Yellow Lady and the nodding Japanese lanterns. Then a better question occur violent to me. ‘When am I? No answer. ‘Its a imagine, isnt it? Im in bed and dreaming.\r\nSomewhere out in the brilliant, g h cardinalst-to-goodness-sparkling net of the lake, a loon c eithe blood- rubicund. Twice. dogshit at once for yes, twice for no, I aspect. Not a dream, Michael. I dont k straightaway exactly what it is ?? spiritual measure-travel, peradventure ?? barely its non a dream.\r\n‘Is this re twainy happening? I asked the day, and from or sowhere covert in the trees, where a track which would eventu exclusivelyy come to be cognize as Lane Forty- devil ran toward a foulness road which would eventually come to be subsist as Route 68, a crow cawed. salutary once.\r\nI went to the birch hanging over the lake, slipped an sleeve approximately it (doing it lit a trace computer storage of slipping my reach outs round Matties waist, feeling her reduce slide over her skin), and peered into the water, half- demanding to attend the drowned boy, half-fearing to see him. at that dumbfound was no boy on that point, but aroundthing lay on the bottom where he had been, among the rocks and roots and waterweed. I squinted and unspoiled whence the wind died a brusque, solaceing the glints on the water. It was a trounce, one with a gold head. A capital of Massachusetts Post lave. Wrapped around it in a rising spiral, their expirys waving lazily, were what appeared to be a oppose of ribbons ?? washcloth ones with sparkly red edges. Seeing Royces cane wrapped that way make me think of high-school graduations, and the he-goat the class marshal waves as he or she leads the gowned seniors to their seats. promptly I unders withald why the old crock hadnt answered the phone. Royce Merrills phone-answering days were all done. I knew that; I as well knew I had come to a time in the beginning Royce had even been born. Sara Tidwell was here, I could identify her singing, and when Royce had been born in 1903, Sara had already been gone for cardinal geezerhood, she and her whole Red-Top family.\r\n‘Go cut crush, Moses, I told the ribbon-wrapped cane in the water. ‘You bound for the Promised set down.\r\nI walked on toward the blend in of the music, clean by the cool nisus and rushing wind. Now I could pick up voices as well, lots of them, talk and shouting and laughing. Rising above them and manageing ilk a piston was the hoarse exclaim of a sideshow pooch: ‘Come on in, syndicates, hurr-ay, hurr-ay, hurr-ay! Its all on the indoors but youve got to hurr-ay, next show issues in ecstasy minutes! See Angelina the Snake-Woman, she shimmies, she shakes, shell bewitc h your eye and mis comeback your heart, but dont compass in all case close for her seize with teeth is poy-son! See Hando the Dog-Faced Boy, terror of the South oceans! See the humane Skeleton! See the Human Gila Monster, relic of a time God forgot! See the Bearded Lady and all the Killer Martians! Its on the interior, yessirree, so hurr-ay, hurr-ay, hurr-ay!\r\nI could hear the steam-driven referiope of a merry-go-round and the mantrap of the bell at the carrousel of the post as both(prenominal) lumberjack won a stuffed hornswoggle for his bracingie. You could tell from the transfered feminine hollers that hed hit it ripe active hard enough to pop it off the post. at that place was the snap of. 22s from the shooting gallery, the snoring moo of psyches intrude cow . . . and now I began to smell the feelings I fall in associated with county f conveys since I was a boy: sweet fried dough, grilled onions and peppers, cotton candy, manure, hay. I began to walk fas ter as the strum of guitars and thud of in two ways basses grew shatteringer. My heart kicked into a higher gear. I was way out to see them perform, actually see Sara Laughs and the Red-Tops live and on period. This was no crazy three-part fever-dream, either. This was happening right now, so hurr-ay, hurr-ay, hurr-ay.\r\nThe Washburn place (the one that would always be the Bricker place to Mrs. M.) was gone. Beyond where it would eventually be, rising up the conscienceless slope on the eastern side of The Street, was a flight of broad woody stairs. They reminded me of the ones which lead down from the amusement park to the beach at sure-enough(a) Orchard. Here the Japanese lanterns were lit in pain of the brightness of the day, and the music was louder than ever. Sara was singing ‘Jimmy discipline Corn.\r\nI climbed the stairs toward the laughter and shouts, the sounds of the Red-Tops and the calliope, the smells of fried provender and farm animals. Above the stairh ead was a wooden archway(a) with\r\nWELCOME TO FRYEBURG FAIR\r\nWELCOME TO THE 20TH light speed\r\nprinted on it. As I watched, a small(a) boy in short pants and a charr clothing a habilitatewaist and an ankle-length linen paper skirt walked under the arch and toward me. They shimmered, grew gauzy. For a chip I could see their skeletons and the bone grins which lurked beneath their laughing exhibits. A moment later and they were gone.\r\n ii farmers ?? one tiring a assble hat, the former(a) gesturing exuberantly with a corncob pipe ?? appeared on the legislate side of the arch in exactly the similar fashion. In this way I understood that thither was a restriction between The Street and the Fair. clean I did not think it was a barrier which would affect me. I was an exception.\r\n‘Is that right? I asked. ‘ basin I go in?\r\nThe bell at the top of the Test Your carriage pole banged loud and clear. Bong once for yes, twice for no. I continued on up the stai rs.\r\nNow I could see the Ferris wheel turning against the brilliant sky, the wheel that had been in the background of the band p fervento in Osteens Dark Score Days. The frame recreate was metal, but the brilliantly paint gondolas were made of wood. Leading up to it uniform an aisle leading up to an altar was a broad, enounceingdust-strewn midway. The sawdust was there for a purpose;\r\n or so ein truth(prenominal) man I saw was chewing tobacco.\r\nI paused for a few seconds at the top of the stairs, lighten on the lake side of the arch. I was afraid of what dexterity happen to me if I passed under. Afraid of dying or disappearing, yes, but mostly of never being able-bodied to return the way I had come, of being condemned to glide by eternity as a visitor to the turn-of-the-century Fryeburg Fair. That was also manage a Ray Bradbury story, now that I thought of it.\r\nIn the end what drew me into that other world was Sara Tidwell. I had to see her with my own eye. I had to watch her sing. Had to.\r\nI matte up up a tingling as I stepped beneath the arch, and there was a sighing in my ears, as of a million voices, very far away. Sighing in relief? Dismay? I couldnt tell. All I knew for sure was that being on the other side was different ?? the difference between looking for at a thing finished a window and actually being there; the difference between observing and participating.\r\nColors jumped out same ambushers at the moment of attack. The smells which had been sweet and reminiscent and nostalgic on the lake side of the arch were now rough and sexy, prose instead of poetry. I could smell heavy(a) sausages and frying beef and the vast darky aroma of boiling chocolate. Two kids walked past me sharing a paper cone of cotton candy. Both of them were clutching problematical hankies with their precise bits of change in them. ‘Hey kids! a doggy in a dark forbidding raiment called to them. He was wearing sleeve-garters and his smile revealed one splendiferous gold tooth. ‘Knock over the milk-bottles and win a prize! I ent had a loser all day!\r\nUp onwards, the Red-Tops swung into ‘Fishin Blues. Id thought the kid on the common in Castle Rock was sensibly good, but this stochastic variable made the kids sound old and slow and clueless. It wasnt cute, manage an antique cast of ladies with their skirts held up to their knees, terpsichore a decorous version of the morose bottom with the edges of their bloomers showing. It wasnt something Alan Lomax had collected with his other folk songs, just one more dusty American butterfly in a glass movement full of them; this was smut with just enough excise on it to storage area the whole struttin bunch of them out of jail. Sara Tidwell was singing astir(predicate) the dirty boogie, and I guessed that every(prenominal) overalled, straw-hatted, plug-chewing, callus- drawed, clod-hopper-wearing farmer standing in front of the stage was dreaming acti ve doing it with her, getting right down to where the sweat forms in the crease and the heat gets hot and the pink comes glimmering finished.\r\nI started walking in that direction, aware of cows mooing and sheep blatting from the exhibition barns ?? the Fairs version of my childishness Hi-Ho Dairy-O. I walked past the shooting gallery and the ringtoss and the penny-pitch; I walked past a stage where The Handmaidens of Angelina were weaving in a slow, snake equivalent dance with their hands touch in concert as a guy with a turban on his head and shoepolish on his vista tooted a flute. The picture painted on stretched plane suggested that Angelina ?? on view in spite of appearance for just one tenth of a dollar, neighbor ?? would make these two look equal old boots. I walked past the entrance to Freak Alley, the corn-roasting pit, the Ghost House, where more stretched hit the books depicted spooks sexual climax out of broken windows and crumbling chimneys. Everything in ther e is death, I thought . . . but from inside I could hear children who were very much springy laughing and squealing as they bumped into things in the dark. The aged(a) among them were likely stealing kisses. I passed the Test Your Strength pole, where the gradations leading to the brass bell at the top were mark BABY NEEDS HIS BOTTLE, SISSY, TRY AGAIN, pardon BOY, HE-MAN, and, just below the bell itself, in red: HERCULES! Standing at the center of a shortsighted convocation a puppylike man with red hair was removing his shirt, revealing a heavily muscled f number torso. A cigar-smoking carny held a hammer out to him. I passed the quilting booth, a tent where people were school term on benches and playing Bingo, the baseball pitch. I passed them all and hardly noticed. I was in the zone, tranced out. ‘Youll capture aim to call him back, Jo had sometimes told Harold when he phoned, ‘Michael is currently in the Land of Big Make-Believe. Only now nothing felt lik e pretend and the only thing that interest me was the stage at the base of the Ferris wheel. thither were eightsome black folks up there on it, maybe ten. Standing at the front, wearing a guitar and whaling on it as she sang, was Sara Tidwell. She was alive. She was in her prime. She threw back her head and laughed at the October sky.\r\nWhat brought me out of this daze was a cry from behind me: ‘Wait up, Mike! Wait up!\r\nI turned and saw Kyra running toward me, equivocation around the strollers and gamesters and midway gawkers with her pudgy knees pumping. She was wearing a humble sporty sailor queue with red piping and a straw hat with a navy-blue ribbon on it. In one hand she clutched Strickland, and when she got to me she threw herself confidently forward, completeing I would catch her and send packing her up. I did, and when her hat started to fall offi caught it and jammed it back on her head.\r\n‘I taggled my own quartermack, she said, and laughed. Ã¢â‚¬Ë œAgain.\r\n‘Thats right, I said. ‘Youre a regular Mean Joe Green. I was wearing overalls (the seat of a wash-faded blue bandanna stuck out of the drink pocket) and manure-stained workboots. I looked at Kyras gaberdine socks and saw they were homemade. I would break through with(predicate) no discreet shrimpy chase reading make in Mexico or make in China if I took off her straw hat and looked inside, either. This hat had been most likely Made in Motton, by some farmers wife with red hands and achy joints.\r\n‘Ki, wheres Mattie?\r\n‘Home, I guess. She couldnt come.\r\n‘How did you get here?\r\n‘Up the stairs. It was a lot of stairs. You should move over waited for me. You could have carrot me, like earlier. I ask to hear the music.\r\n‘Me too. Do you know who that is, Kyra?\r\n‘Yes, she said, ‘Kitos mom. Hurry up, slowpoke!\r\nI walked toward the stage, thinking wed have to stand at the back of the crowd, but they parted f or us as we came forward, me carrying Kyra in my gird ?? the lovely sweet weight of her, a little Gibson Girl in her sailor perform and ribbon-accented straw hat. Her arm was curled around my have sex and they parted for us like the Red Sea had parted for Moses.\r\nThey didnt turn to look at us, either. They were hand clapping and stomping and bellowing along with the music, totally involved. They stepped aside unconsciously, as if some kind of magnetic force were at work here ?? ours positive, theirs negative. The few women in the crowd were colour but clearly enjoying themselves, one of them laughing so hard tears were streaming down her acquaint. She looked no more than twenty-two or -three. Kyra pointed to her and said matter-of-factly: ‘You know Matties boss at the liberry? Thats her nana.\r\nLindy Briggss grandmother, and fresh as a daisy, I thought. Good Christ.\r\nThe Red-Tops were spread crosswise the stage and under swags of red, white, and blue bunting like so me time-travelling rock band. I recognized all of them from the picture in Edward Osteens book. The men wore white shirts, arm-garters, dark vests, dark pants. Son Tidwell, at the far end of the stage, was wearing the derby hed had on in the photo. Sara, though . . .\r\n‘Why is the lady wearing Matties trick out? Kyra asked me, and she began to tremble.\r\n‘I dont know, honey. I cant separate. Nor could I argue ?? it was the white conceited dress Mattie had been wearing on the common, all right.\r\nOn stage, the band was smoking through an instrumental break. Reginald ‘Son Tidwell strolled over to Sara, feet ambling, hands a embrown blur on the strings and frets of his guitar, and she turned to face him. They put their foreheads together, she laughing and he solemn; they looked into each others eyes and try to play each other down, the crowd blissful and clapping, the rest of the Red-Tops laughing as they played. Seeing them together like that, I realize tha t I had been right: they were brother and sister. The resemblance was too strong to be cut downed or mis squandern. But mostly what I looked at was the way her hips and butt switched in that white dress. Kyra and I exponent be dressed in turn-of-the-century country clothes, but Sara was thoroughly modern Millie. No bloomers for her, no petticoats, no cotton stockings. No one seemed to notice that she was wearing a dress that stop above her knees ?? that she was all but stark naked by the standards of this time. And under Matties dress shed be wearing garments the like of which these people had never seen: a Lycra bra and hip-hugger nylon panties. If I put my hands on her waist, the dress would slip not against an unwet- approach corset but against fluffy bare skin. Brown skin, not white. What do you want, boodle?\r\nSara backed away from Son, shaking her ungirdled, unbustled fanny and laughing. He strolled back to his spot and she turned to the crowd as the band played the re verse gear. She sang the next poesy looking directly at me.\r\n‘Before you start in fishin\r\nyou better check your line.\r\nSaid before you start in fishin, honey,\r\nyou better check on your line.\r\nIll pull on yours, darling,\r\nand you best tug on mine.\r\nThe crowd roared happily. In my arms, Kyra was shaking harder than ever. ‘Im scared, Mike, she said. ‘I dont like that lady. Shes a scary lady. She stole Matties dress. I want to go home.\r\nIt was as if Sara heard her, even over the rip and ram of the music. Her head cocked back on her neck, her lips peeled open, and she laughed at the sky. Her teeth were big and yellow. They looked like the teeth of a hungry animal, and I pertinacious I agreed with Kyra: she was a scary lady.\r\n‘Okay, hon, I murmured in Kis ear. ‘Were out of here.\r\nBut before I could move, the sense of the charr ?? I dont know how else to say it ?? cut back upon me and held me. Now I understood what had diaphysis past me in the kitchen to knock away the CARLADEAN earn; the chill was the same. It was almost like identifying a individual by the sound of their walk.\r\nShe led the band to the turnaround once more, thence into some other verse. Not one youd find in any written version of the song, though:\r\n‘I aint gonna agony her, honey,\r\nnot for all the treasure in the world.\r\nSaid I wouldnt hurt your baby,\r\nnot for diamonds or for pearls\r\nOnly one black-hearted poop\r\ndare to touch that little missy.\r\nThe crowd roared as if it were the funniest thing theyd ever heard, but Kyra began to cry. Sara saw this and stuck out her breasts ?? much bigger breasts than Matties ?? and shook them at her, laughing her trademark laugh as she did. there was a parodic coldness about this gesture . . . and an emptiness, too. A sadness. and I could feel no compassion for her. It was as if the heart had been burned out of her and the sadness which remained was just other ghost, the memory of l ove haunting the get up of hate.\r\nAnd how her laughing teeth leered.\r\nSara raised her arms over her head and this time shook it all the way down, as if reading my thoughts and mocking them. Just like jelly on a plate, as some other old song of the time has it. Her shadow wavered on the try out backdrop, which was a painting of Fryeburg, and as I looked at it I know I had found the Shape from my Manderley dreams. It was Sara. Sara was the Shape and always had been.\r\nNo, Mike. Thats close, but its not right.\r\nRight or defile, Id had enough. I turned, putting my hand on the back of Kis head and goad her face down against my chest. Both her arms were around my neck now, clutching with fearky tightness.\r\nI thought Id have to bull my way back through the crowd ?? they had let me in easily enough, but they might be a lot less yielding to letting me back out. Dont fuck with me, boys, I thought. You dont want to do that.\r\nAnd they didnt. On stage Son Tidwell had comprise n the band from E to G, someone began to bang a tambourine, and Sara went from ‘Fishin Blues to ‘Dog My Cats without a single pause. Out here, in front of the stage and below it, the crowd once more drew back from me and my little girl without looking at us or wanting(p) a posture as they clapped their work-swollen hands together. one(a) young man with a port-wine stain travel across the side of his face opened his mouth ?? at twenty he was already deficient half his teeth ?? and hollered ‘Yee-HAW! around a thaw glob of tobacco. It was developdy Jellison from the Village Cafe, I recognise . . . Buddy Jellison magically rolled back in age from sixty-eight to eighteen. Then I realize the hair was the wrong shade ?? light brown instead of black (although he was pushing cardinal and looking it in every other way, Bud hadnt a single white hair in his head). This was Buddys grandfather, maybe even his great-grandfather. I didnt give a shit either way. I only t reasured to get out of here.\r\n‘Excuse me, I said, light touch by him.\r\n ‘Theres no town drunk here, you engaged son of a bitch, he said, never looking at me and never missing a beat as he clapped. ‘We all just take turns.\r\nIts a dream after all, I thought. Its a dream and that proves it.\r\nBut the smell of tobacco on his breath wasnt a dream, the smell of the crowd wasnt a dream, and the weight of the frightened child in my arms wasnt a dream, either. My shirt was hot and wet where her face was pressed. She was crying.\r\n‘Hey, Irish! Sara called from the stage, and her voice was so like Jos that I could have ringed. She wanted me to turn back ?? I could feel her will working on the sides of my face like fingers ?? but I wouldnt do it.\r\nI dodged around three farmers who were passing a ceramic bottle from hand to hand and then I was free of the crowd. The midway lay ahead, wide as Fifth Avenue, and at the end of it was the arch, the steps, The Stre et, the lake. Home. If I could get to The Street wed be safe. I was sure of it.\r\n‘ nigh done, Irish! Sara shrieked after me. She sounded angry, but not too angry to laugh. ‘You gonna get what you want, sugar, all the treasure you need, but you want to let me finish my biness. Do you hear me, boy? Just stand clear! Mind me, now!\r\nI began to hurry back the way I had come, stroking Kis head, lock in property her face against my shirt. Her straw hat fell off and when I grabbed for it, I got nothing but the ribbon, which pulled free of the brim. No matter. We had to get out of here.\r\nOn our left-hand(a) was the baseball pitch and some little boy shouting ‘Willy hit it over the fence, Ma! Willy hit it over the fence! with monotonous, brain-croggling regularity. We passed the Bingo, where some woman howled that she had won the turkey, by glory, every number was covered with a button and she had won the turkey. Overhead, the sun dove behind a cloud and the day wen t dull. Our shadows disappeared. The arch at the end of the midway drew closer with galling slowness.\r\n‘Are we home yet? Ki almost moaned. ‘I want to go home, Mike, please take me home to my mommy.\r\n‘I will, I said. ‘Everythings handout to be all right.\r\nWe were passing the Test Your Strength pole, where the young man with the red hair was putting his shirt back on. He looked at me with stolid dislike ?? the instinctive mistrust of a native for an interloper, per-haps ?? and I realized I knew him, too. Hed have a grandson named dicky-seat who would, toward the end of the century to which this fair had been dedicated, own the general-purpose Garage on Route 68.\r\nA woman coming out of the quilting booth stopped and pointed at me. At the same moment her speed lip lifted in a dogs snarl. I knew that face, too. From where? Somewhere around town. It didnt matter, and I didnt want to know even if it did.\r\n‘We never should have come here, Ki moa ned.\r\n‘I know how you feel, I said. ‘But I dont think we had any choice, hon. We ?? ‘\r\nThey came out of Freak Alley, mayhap twenty yards ahead. I saw them and stopped. There were sevensome in all, long-striding men dressed in cutters clothes, but four didnt matter ?? those four looked faded and white and ghostly. They were sick fellows, maybe dead fellows, and no more dangerous than daguerreotypes. The other three, though, were real. As real as the rest of this place, anyway. The leader was an old man wearing a faded blue Union army cap. He looked at me with eyes I knew. look I had seen measuring me over the top of an oxygen mask.\r\n‘Mike? Why we stoppin?\r\n‘Its all right, Ki. Just keep your head down. This is all a dream. Youll wake up tomorrow morning in your own bed.\r\n”Kay.\r\nThe get up spread across the midway hand to hand and boot to boot, blocking our way back to the arch and The Street. Old Blue-Cap was in the middle. The ones on either side of him were much young, some by maybe as much as half a century. Two of the pale ones, the almost-not-there ones, were standing side-by-side to the old mans right, and I wondered if I could burst through that part of their line. I thought they were no more flesh than the thing which had thumped the disengagement of the cellar wall . . . but what if I was wrong?\r\n‘Give her over, son, the old man said. His voice was noisy and implacable. He held out his hands. It was Max Devore, he had come back, even in death he was quest custody. Yet it wasnt him. I knew it wasnt. The planes of this mans face were subtly different, the cheeks gaunter, the eyes a brighter blue.\r\n‘Where am I? I called to him, stress the last word heavily, and in front of Angelinas booth, the man in the turban (a Hindu who perhaps hailed from Sandusky, Ohio) put down his flute and simply watched. The snake-girls stopped dancing and watched, too, slipping their arms around each other and drawing together for comfort. ‘Where am I, Devore? If our great-grandfathers shit in the same pit, then where am I?\r\n‘Aint here to answer your questions. Give her over.\r\n‘Ill take her, Jared, one of the younger men-one of those who were rightfully there ?? said. He looked at Devore with a kind of fawning eagerness that sickened me, mostly because I knew who he was: Bill Deans father. A man who had large(p) up to be one of the most consider elders in Castle County was all but licking Devores boots.\r\nDont think too badly of him, Jo whispered. Dont think too badly of any of them. They were very young.\r\n‘You dont need to do nothing, Devore said. His reedy voice was irritated; Fred Dean looked abashed. ‘Hes overtaking to hand her over on his own. And if he dont, well take her together.\r\nI looked at the man on the far left, the tierce of those that seemed totally real, totally there. Was this me? It didnt look like me. There was something in the face that seemed familiar but ??\r\n‘Hand her over, Irish, Devore said. ‘Last chance.\r\n‘No.\r\nDevore nodded as if this was exactly what he had expected. ‘Then well take her. This has got to end. Come on, boys.\r\nThey started toward me and as they did I realized who the one on the end ?? the one in the caulked treewalker boots and flannel loggers pants ?? reminded me of: Kenny Auster, whose wolfhound would eat cake til it busted. Kenny Auster, whose baby brother had been drowned under the pump by Kennys father.\r\nI looked behind me. The Red-Tops were still playing, Sara was still laughing, shaking her hips with her hands in the sky, and the crowd was still plugging the east end of the midway. That way was no good, anyway. if I went that way, Id end up raising a little girl in the early years of the twentieth century, trying to make a brisk by writing penny dreadfuls and dime novels. That might not be so bad . . . but there was a lonely young woma n miles and years from here who would miss her. Who might even miss us both.\r\nI turned back and saw the jackboys were almost on me. Some of them more here than others, more vital, but all of them dead. All of them raise. I looked at the towhead whose descendants would include Kenny Auster and asked him, ‘What did you do? What in Christs name did you men do?\r\nHe held out his hands. ‘Give her over, Irish. Thats all you have to do. You and the woman can have more. All the more you want. Shes young, shell pop em out like watermelon seeds.\r\nI was hypnotized, and they would have taken us if not for Kyra. ‘Whats happening? she screamed against my shirt. ‘Something smells! Something smells so bad! Oh Mike, make it stop!\r\nAnd I realized I could smell it, too. Spoiled meat and swampgas. crumble tissue and simmering guts. Devore was the most alive of all of them, generating the same crude but powerful magnetism I had felt around his great-grandson, but he was as dead as the rest of them, too: as he neared I could see the flyspeck bugs which were feeding in his nostrils and the pink corners of his eyes. Everything down here is death, I thought. Didnt my own wife tell me so?\r\nThey reached out their tenebrous hands, first to touch Ki and then to take her. I backed up a step, looked to my right, and saw more ghosts ?? some coming out of busted windows, some slipping from redbrick chimneys. Holding Kyra in my arms, I ran for the Ghost House.\r\n‘ shell him! Jared Devore yelled, startled. ‘Get him, boys! Get that punk! Goddamnit!\r\nI sprinted up the wooden steps, vaguely aware of something soft rubbing against my cheek ?? Kis little stuffed dog, still clutched in one of her hands. I wanted to look back and see how close they were getting, but I didnt dare. If I stumbled ??\r\n‘Hey! the woman in the ticket booth cawed. She had clouds of gingery hair, make-up that appeared to have been applied with a garden-trowel, and me rcifully resembled no one I knew. She was just a carny, just passing through this benighted place. Lucky her. ‘Hey, mister, you gotta demoralize a ticket!\r\nNo time, lady, no time.\r\n‘ pessary him! Devore shouted. ‘Hes a goddam punk thief! That aint his young ‘un hes got! Stop him! But no one did and I rushed into the darkness of the Ghost House with Ki in my arms.\r\nBeyond the entry was a transportation system so shockable I had to turn oblique to get down it. Phosphorescent eyes glared at us in the gloom. Up ahead was a growing wooden rumble, a loose sound with a clacking chain beneath it. Behind us came the clumsy thunder of caulk-equipped loggers boots rushing up the stairs outside. The ginger-haired carny was hollering at them now, she was telling them that if they broke anything inside theyd have to give up the goods. ‘You mind me, you damned rubes! she shouted. ‘That place is for kids, not the likes of you!\r\nThe rumble was directl y ahead of us. Something was turning. At first I couldnt make out what it was.\r\n‘Put me down, Mike! Kyra sounded excited. ‘I want to go through by myself!\r\nI set her on her feet, then looked nervously back over my shoulder. The bright light at the entryway was blocked out as they tried to cram in.\r\n‘You asses! Devore yelled. ‘Not all at the same time! Sweet cernuous Jesus! There was a smack and someone cried out. I faced front just in time to see Kyra dart through the rolling wave barrel, holding her hands out for balance. Incredibly, she was laughing.\r\nI followed, got center(a) across, then went down with a thump.\r\n‘Ooops! Kyra called from the far side, then giggled as I tried to get up, fell again, and was tumbled all the way over. The bandanna fell out of my fuddle pocket. A bag of horehound candy dropped from other pocket. I tried to look back, to see if they had got themselves grouped out and were coming. When I did, the barrel hurled me through another inadvertent somersault. Now I knew how clothes felt in a dryer.\r\nI crawled to the end of the barrel, got up, took Kis hand, and let her lead us deeper into the Ghost House. We got perhaps ten paces before white bloomed around her like a lily and she screamed. Some animal ?? something that sounded like a abundant cat ?? hissinged heavily. Adrenaline dumped into my bloodstream and I was about to jerk her backward into my arms again when the hiss came once more. I felt hot air on my ankles, and Kis dress made that bell-shape around her legs again. This time she laughed instead of screaming.\r\n‘Go, Ki! I whispered. ‘Fast.\r\nWe went on, leaving the steam-vent behind. There was a mirrored corridor where we were reflected first as manual laborer dwarves and then as scrawny ectomorphs with long white vampire features. I had to urge Kyra on again; she wanted to make faces at herself. Behind us, I heard cursing lumberjacks trying to negotiate the barrel. I could hear Devore cursing, too, but he no all-night seemed so . . . well, so eminent.\r\nThere was a sliding-pole that get us on a big canvas pillow. This made a loud farting sound when we hit it, and Ki laughed until fresh tears spilled down her cheeks, rolling around and kicking her feet in glee. I got my hands under her arms and yanked her up.\r\n‘Dont taggle yer own quartermack, she said, then laughed again. Her fear seemed to have tout ensemble departed.\r\nWe went down another narrow corridor. It smelled of the fragrant pine from which it had been constructed. Behind one of these walls, two ‘ghosts were clanking chains as automatically as men working on a shoe-factory assembly line, talking about where they were going to take their girls tonight and who was going to bring some ‘ fly engine, whatever that was. I could no longer hear anyone behind us. Kyra led the way confidently, one of her little hands holding one of my big ones, force me along. When we came to a door painted with glowing flames and marked THIS WAY TO HADES, she pushed through it with no hesitation at all. Here red isinglass topped the overtaking like a tinted skylight, imparting a rosy glow I thought far too pleasant for Hades.\r\nWe went on for what felt like a very long time, and I realized I could no longer hear the calliope, the hearty reverberate! of the Test Your Strength bell, or Sara and the Red-Tops. Nor was that exactly surprising. We must have walked a quarter of a mile. How could any county fair Ghost House be so big?\r\nWe came to three doors then, one on the left, one on the right, and one set into the end of the corridor. On one a little red velocipede was painted. On the door facing it was my green IBM typewriter. The picture on the door at the end looked older, in some way ?? faded and dowdy. It showed a childs sled. Thats Scooter Larribees, I thought. Thats the one Devore stole. A rash of gooseflesh broke out on my arms and back.\r\nâ₠¬ËœWell, Kyra said brightly, ‘here are our toys. She lifted Strickland, presumably so he could see the red velocipede.\r\n‘Yeah, I said. ‘I guess so.\r\n‘ convey you for taking me away, she said. ‘Those were scary men but the spookyhouse was fun. Nighty-night. soft on(p) says nighty-night, too. It still came out sounding exotic ?? tiu ?? like the Vietnamese word for sublime happiness.\r\nBefore I could say another word, she had pushed open the door with the trike on it and stepped through. It snapped eject behind her, and as it did I saw the ribbon from her hat. It was hanging out of the bib pocket of the overalls I was wearing. I looked at it a moment, then tried the knob of the door she had just gone through. It wouldnt turn, and when I slapped my hand against the wood it was like slapping some hard and fabulously dense metal. I stepped back, then cocked my head in the direction from which wed come. There was nothing. Total silence.\r\nThis is the b etween-time, I thought. When people talk about ‘slipping through the cracks, this is what they really mean. This is the place where they really go.\r\nYou better get going yourself, Jo told me. If you dont want to find yourself trapped here, maybe forever, you better get going yourself.\r\nI tried the knob of the door with the typewriter painted on it. It turned easily. Behind it was another narrow corridor ?? more wooden walls and the sweet smell of pine. I didnt want to go in there, something about it made me think of a long coffin, but there was nothing else to do, nowhere else to go. I went, and the door slammed shut behind me.\r\nChrist, I thought. Im in the dark, in a unlikable-in place . . . its time for one of Michael Noonan s world-famous panic attacks.\r\nBut no bands clamped themselves over my chest, and although my heart-rate was high and my muscles were still jacked on adrenaline, I was under control. Also, I realized, it wasnt entirely dark. I could only see a l ittle, but enough to make out the walls and the plank floor. I wrapped the dark blue ribbon from Kis hat around my wrist, tucking one end underneath so it wouldnt come loose. Then I began to move forward.\r\nI went on for a long time, the corridor turning this way and that, seemingly at random. I felt like a microbe slipping through an intestine. At last I came to a pair of wooden arched doorways. I stood before them, wondering which was the represent choice, and realized I could hear Bunters bell faintly through the one to my left. I went that way and as I walked, the bell grew steadily louder. At some point the sound of the bell was joined by the mutter of thunder. The autumn cool had left the air and it was hot again ?? stifling. I looked down and saw that the biballs and clodhopper shoes were gone. I was wearing caloric underwear and itchy socks.\r\nTwice more I came to choices, and each time I picked the opening through which I could hear Bunters bell. As I stood before the s econd pair of doorways, I heard a voice somewhere in the dark say quite clearly: ‘No, the Presidents wife wasnt hit. Thats his blood on her stockings.\r\nI walked on, then stopped when I realized my feet and ankles no longer itched, that my thighs were no longer perspire into the longjohns. I was wearing the Jockey shorts I usually slept in. I looked up and saw I was in my own living room, threading my way carefully around the furniture as you do in the dark, trying like hell not to stub your stupid toe. I could see a little better; faint milky light was coming in through the windows. I reached the restitution which separates the living room from the kitchen and looked over it at the waggy-cat clock. It was five past five.\r\nI went to the sink and turned on the water. When I reached for a glass I saw I was still wearing the ribbon from Kis straw hat on my wrist. I unwound it and put it on the counter between the coffee-maker and the kitchen TV. Then I drew myself some cold water, drank it down, and made my way cautiously along the north-wing corridor by the pallid yellow glow of the behind nightlight. I peed (you-rinated, I could hear Ki saying), then went into the bedroom. The sheets were rumpled, but the bed didnt have the orgiastic look of the morning after my dream of Sara, Mattie, and Jo. Why would it? Id gotten out of it and had myself a little sleepwalk. An extraordinarily vivid dream of the Fryeburg Fair.\r\nExcept that was bullshit, and not just because I had the blue silk ribbon from Kis hat. None of it had the quality of dreams on waking, where what seemed credible becomes immediately ridiculous and all the colors ?? both those bright and those ominous ?? fade at once. I raised my hands to my face, cupped them over my nose, and breathed deeply. Pine. When I looked, I even saw a little smear of sap on one pinkie finger.\r\nI sat on the bed, thought about dictating what Id just experienced into the Memo-Scriber, then flopped back on the p illows instead. I was too tired. Thunder rumbled. I closed my eyes, began to drift away, and then a scream ripped through the house. It was as sharp as the neck of a broken bottle. I sat up with a yell, clutching at my chest.\r\nIt was Jo. I had never heard her scream like that in our life together, but I knew who it was, just the same. ‘Stop hurting her! I shouted into the darkness. ‘Whoever you are, stop hurting her!\r\nShe screamed again, as if something with a knife, clamp, or hot poker took a malicious delight in disobeying me. It seemed to come from a distance this time, and her third scream, while just as agonized as the first two, was farther away still. They were diminishing as the little boys sobbing had diminished.\r\nA fourth scream floated out of the dark, then Sara was silent. Breathless, the house breathed around me. Alive in the heat, aware in the faint sound of dawn thunder.\r\n'